Fáilte chuig láithreán Gréasáin an Seirbhís Tacaíochta d'Eolaíochta an Teastais Shóisearaigh

 

 

 

 

Junior Science New Service Provision for Teachers

The Second Level Support Service (SLSS) extend its gratitude to all of you that supported the work of the service throughout the years since its establishment in 2001. A new cross - sectoral service, the Professional Development Service for Teachers  (PDST) was established in September 2010. The PDST will subsume much of the work of the SLSS.

The PDST is happy to inform you that the resources, materials and functionalities of this website will continue to be available to you in the future. 

Tim Regan timregan@pdst.ie 087 2314090 and Bríd Finn science@pdst.ie   061585064
Some aims of the service are:

• to promote student centred learning and investigation
• to assist teachers to work together effectively in school
• to assist non subject specialists
• to help teachers to integrate ICT in science teaching and learning

 

 Junior Science Support Service website resources are available by clicking here

Thank you for completing the PDST Junior Science Support Teacher Feedback Survey in April 2011. To access a summary report click here

 

Course participants are invited to complete our PDST Junior Science Workshop Evaluation Form

Support Courses Spring 2012

Induction Course for Junior Science Teachers

Course Venue	Course Date	Time
		9.30 – 15.45.
Drumcondra Ed Centre		9.30 – 15.45.
Athlone Education Centre		9.30 – 15.45.

To apply for a place on any course email your name, number and school details to Bríd Finn at sciences@pdst.ie  or fax completed application form to 061 585065. 

For enquiries tel. 061 585064.  Click here to download the application form

More course details and further workshops –as needs emerge will be available on this website.

 

PDST Junior Science Spring Workshops 2012

 

Education Centre	Course Date
Carrick-on-Shannon	Monday February 6
Galway	Monday February 6
Waterford	Monday February 6
Donegal	Tuesday February 7
Kilkenny	Tuesday February 7
Monaghan	Tuesday February 7
Athlone	Wednesday February 8
Laois	Wednesday February 8
West Cork	Wednesday February 8
Limerick	Thursday February 9
Cork	Monday February 20
Education Centre	Course Date
Dublin West	Monday February 20
Clare	Monday February 20
Navan	Monday February 20
Blackrock	Tuesday February 21
Tralee	Tuesday February 21
Co Wexford	Tuesday February 21
Mayo	Wednesday February 22
Kildare	Thursday February 23
Sligo	Thursday February 23
Drumcondra	Tuesday March 6

 

Vernier Datalogging

The two hour refresher course will look at all types of Vernier dataloggers – calculator, labquest and computer with Go-Link.
The use of temperature, motion, heartrate, pH, light and other sensors will be examined. Time of all workshops 7.00 – 9.00 pm.

Education Centre	Course Date		Education Centre	Course Date
Navan			Blackrock
Limerick			Donegal
Kilkenny			Galway

To Register email your name, mobile number and school details to Brid Finn at sciences@pdst.ie  or fax a completed application form to 061 585065

 

PDST Junior Cycle Science Collaboration Courses with NCE MSTL UL

Concept  Mapping – A tool to help students make the link between science words!

Guided discussion on how to implement Concept Mapping and use it effectively in any Science class

 Facilitator: Dr. Joanne Broggy (Joanne.Broggy@ul.ie)

Science Topic: Content focusing on Junior Certificate Science syllabus but tool applicable to all science teachers

Participants will be given a CD containing a presentation to introduce the tool to students and also a selection of maps detailing the theory of several topics within the Junior Certificate science syllabus. These maps can be used in a variety of ways which will be discussed at the workshop

 

Education Centre	Course Date	Time
Athlone	Thursday November 24, 2011	7 – 9 pm

 

 

 

 Assessment Questions

  This workshop involves the implementation of the Inquiry Based Science Teaching and Learning with the aim of improving the participants’ skills in developing Junior Cycle Science Assessment Questions.

 

Venue	Course Date	Time
NCE MSTL UL	Deferred to Spring  2012	7.00– 9.00 pm

 

 

 

Facilitator: Dr. Jennifer Johnston, NCE-MSTL. (Jennifer.Johnston@ul.ie)

Science Topic: Junior Certificate Science

 

To apply for a place email your name, number and school details to Bríd Finn at sciences@pdst.ie  or fax completed application form to 061 585065. 

For enquiries tel. 061 585064

Local Facilitators

Do your educational goals match those set out above? Are you passionate about Science and willing to share your experience with colleagues? Do you have a special interest in an area of teaching science? Have you experience in helping students use modern ICT effectively?
Would you be interested in receiving training and assistance to develop and operate local courses in your area? If so then contact Tim Regan 087 2314090 or email timregan@pdst.ie 

Note: The first meeting of PDST Junior Science local facilitators took place in the Athlone Education on Thursday November 18, 2010. A second meeting is planned for the Athlone Education Centre on Tuesday February 1,  2011.

 PDST Local Facilitators Evaluation form 

SEC

The examination papers and marking schemes are all available on the SEC website www.examinations.ie

Revised Syllabus and Smoking

Smoking cigarettes is not permitted in schools. In the past, some experiments related to respiration may have been performed using cigarettes. It should be noted that no activity involving the use of cigarettes should be undertaken in school.
See Circular 0130/2006.

NCCA

Draft Teacher guidelines for Junior Science have been sent to all schools. Electronic copy is available on the NCCA website.
March '06 Guidelines

 

ONLINE SAFETY COURSES
Safety and Health in the Science Laboratory for Teachers  
This free course will help teachers of the Science subjects improve their knowledge and understanding of safety, health and welfare, particularly within the science laboratory.

Get Safe - Work Safe: Workplace Safety and Health for Senior Cycle Students
This short free course will develop your knowledge of workplace safety, health and welfare. We are all responsible for safety and health at some level and the more we understand it the better prepared we are to prevent accidents and ill-health at work.
It is aimed at senior cycle secondary school students who are engaged in work experience or holiday work, and as future members of the workforce. It is provided by the Health and Safety Authority in Ireland.

Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) of Substances and Mixtures
under EU CLP Regulation. For further information, visit The Health and Safety Authority’s website www.hsa.ie or contact the CLP Helpdesk at e-mail clp@hsa.ie or telephone 1890 289 389

Laboratory Health and Safety 
Safety in the school laboratory is everyone’s concern and the aim is to ensure that no one gets hurt or becomes ill. The Health and Safety Authority control measures outline ways of preventing accidents. Download HSA file here

 

Discover Sensors Project

See the Discover Sensors website 

        
Moodle: online areas and support

For some years Junior Science has been developing online supports using Moodle and other tools. A large scale website setup has been running on www.sors.ie since 2006. This has areas for:

• Collaboration among teachers in different schools e.g. the Discover Sensors project
• Online courses e.g. Safety and Physics
• Online areas for all school science workgroups

Example online courses for students are now being produced in the ITEMS project
Is it ESSENTIAL that any teacher using the www.sors.ie site contact johnhennessy AT slss DOT ie as soon as possible.

Use of the site has been recommended by the Inspectorate in the publication "Looking at Junior Science" for example as a way to store shared documents of the sort expected of science work groups in schools. Some teachers are also using the site with students.

If you use www.sors.ie for any purpose please contact johnhennessy@slss.ie  Thank you.
 

A username and password is needed to access these areas.For further information phone John Hennessy on 086 1722333. Once logged on there is a general forum for discussion on the front page and help on using the site.